Make this January 2020 about giving your house the New Year/New You treatment.
Use that new back to work, fresh-from-holidays energy to boost your home environment. You’ll find it’ll give you the energy to tackle those tougher resolutions liking quitting sugar or getting to the gym.
1. De-clutter
From the Christmas decorations still lurking about (no, really, it’s time to take that wreath down, it’s no longer festive) to the remains of the end of school year paperwork, use January to do a serious tidy out.
Start your property search
You don’t need to start with an entire Marie Kondo-style minimalism purge (although that’s a good start to the year too), but focus on the most visible parts of the house and tackle one or two bits at the time.
Start with the paper and rubble accumulating on the kitchen bench or hall table – recycle the pre-Christmas catalogues, magazines, invitations and old calendars, put any receipts into an envelope to check off against the credit card statement and keep only the school notices that are for the new year.
A decluttered kitchen and pantry gives you a fresh start to the year. Picture / Getty Images
Clean out the fridge and pantry and see if you can ‘shop the cupboards’ to work down the supplies you bought for holiday entertaining and didn’t use.
If you haven’t the time for a full wardrobe work-through, at least go through the beach gear, tossing grotty chilli-bins, broken jandals and dead sun-block, and make yourself a nice tidy pair of bags – one with togs and towels, the other with non-perishable picnic supplies – so that you can get out the door to the beach the minute the day promises good weather.
Your clutter may even be holding you back from a great relationship, according to one expert!
2. Created outdoor living spots
Even if you haven’t got the budget for a full landscaping job this year, whether you’ve got a six sq m balcony or a lavish quarter acre lot, creating a good outdoor space will give you a summer of pleasure.
Get at least one corner of the garden in order for evening barbecues, daytime lounging and even a spot of food production.
No matter what size your garden is, create an outdoor space you can live in through the summer. Picture / Getty Images
A tidy and weed, can create space for outdoor table and chairs near the barbecue, even better if there’s room for an umbrella and a couple of pot plants to. Now is the time to check out trading websites for bargains (all those unwanted Christmas gifts) to carve out a back yard or deck oasis.
3. Sort your carbon footprint
Eough talk. While we’re not going to solve the climate emergency single handedly, every individual action helps. So make this the year you reduce, reuse and recycle to do your bit, introducing one new action a month
If you’re already recycling rubbish, go one step further by not bringing single use plastic into your house (or using it for takeaways). Separate food and green waste into compost, a worm farm or bokashi bucket or, better still, reduce the amount of food you waste (see here for Love Food Hate Waste ideas for using leftovers and eating parts of veges you’d previously scrap. Banana peel bacon, anyone?).
Replace lightbulbs with low energy ones, and, if you’re putting in new plumbing or appliances, go for low energy/low water models.
Consider replacing some car journeys with walking, biking or using public transport. And if you fly, purchase carbon credits with your tickets to off-set.
4. Create spaces for the important things you love
Have you got a list of things that are wrong with the house – no room for those hobbies, it’s not helping family time together, there’s not enough storage or you can’t find things when you need them.
Instead of despairing, take a hard look at what spaces in your house are under-used or not working properly, and use January to re-purpose them.
Love to be a family that talks and hangs out together? Rearrange the living room so that the television doesn’t dominate, that chairs face each other rather than the big black box. Need room for making stuff, while the dining room sits un-used because you eat at the kitchen bar or on your laps? Turn it into the crafting, homework or even the office space.
Garage just one big junk room where you can’t find anything and the car’s permanently outside? Spend the month purging and organising so that there’s room for the car, the bikes and tools and it’s back to earning its keep.
5. Set up systems for back to work/school
While you’re still fresh, set up the house for an easier life before the really busy times hit in February.
Re-arrange the space around the back door or laundry with shelves, baskets and hooks to make a mud room that keeps school or gym bags, hats, boots, dog leads, car keys in a single space so you can find things and get out the door quickly.
Set up a ‘control centre’ with a shared calendar, basket for dumping mail/school forms/invitations, shopping lists and so on so that everyone in the family knows the system for handling paper work, requests for shopping and appointments.
Organise pantry and fridge with lunch and breakfast things in one spot so that everyone can get themselves sorted in the morning.
And the bonus? A house that you can love for the summer while you plan your next move.
